Islamic Jihad and Israel have accepted Egypt's proposal for a truce after five days of missiles, bombs and rockets in the umpteenth escalation since Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
The ceasefire, achieved mainly thanks to Egyptian mediation, was soon challenged. Minutes before and after it came into force this Saturday at ten o'clock at night, Islamic Jihad launched more projectiles against central and southern Israel that responded by attacking the launchers. "It is the demonstration that our capacity has not been affected until the last moment," they said in the Islamic Jihad that proclaimed "victory" against its enemy before a truce based on the old and fragile principle of "calm in exchange for calm".
The Islamist group Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and did not actively participate in the confrontation, has officially confirmed the truce after what it has defined as "victory of the Palestinian people".
An hour after the start of the truce, several shells against an Israeli town near the Gaza Strip broke the calm.
"Israel accepted the Egyptian initiative which means that calm will be answered calmly and if Israel is attacked or threatened, it will continue to do everything it has to do to defend itself," said the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who appreciated "Egypt's intense efforts to achieve a ceasefire."
Since Israel launched last Tuesday what it called "Operation Shield and Arrow" against the military leadership and infrastructure of Islamic Jihad, 33 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip: militants - including six leaders of the Quds Brigades - and civilians, including several children and women. According to the Israeli military, four of the Palestinian civilians killed (including three children) were hit by failed Islamic Jihad shells that landed in Gaza territory. In Israel, an Israeli woman and a Palestinian worker from Gaza were killed by attacks by the group considered terrorist also by the European Union and the United States.
The Israeli air offensive began at two a.m. on Tuesday when drones killed three senior leaders of the Al Quds Brigades in an attack that also killed 10 civilians who were in their homes in Rafah and Gaza. The attack against the armed leadership of Islamic Jihad was approved by Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant the previous week following the hundred rockets and mortar shells against several Israeli towns in response to the death of Islamic Jihad prisoner Khader Adnan after 86 days of hunger strike in an Israeli jail.
In the negotiation with Egypt that was already on the verge of fruition last Wednesday, the main demand of the pro-Iranian group was the Israeli written commitment not to carry out the so-called "targeted assassinations". Especially after in just a few days Israel killed six leaders of the armed wing whom it considered terrorists responsible for the launching of projectiles from Gaza against Israeli civilians as well as the organization and direction of cells in the West Bank.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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